If you’ve ever seen a decaf coffee bean before it is roasted, it’s ugly as hell compared to the beautiful blue-green of properly milled arabica that has not been tortured by decaffeination. Add to “ugly” decaf the exceedingly dark roast and you have a beautiful photograph of an abused bean. I think you might find a lighter roast yields new if not more objectively interesting detail.

@Mike: That’s a great point. I actually haven’t seen a green decaf coffee bean before. That might make an interesting photograph… When I was taking this picture I only had two kinds of coffee beans available–both french roast, one decaf. So, between the two I actually chose the decaf one (even though it is more abused) because it was less shiny, which dramatically reduced distracting reflections. Maybe when I’m out and about I’ll pick up some other beans and see what they look like.